ECOWAS to Deploy Youth Observers for Nigeria’s 2027 Election

The Economic Community of West African States ECOWAS says it will deploy youth-only election observers for Nigeria’s 2027 general election.

Serigne Mamadou Ka, Head of the ECOWAS Electoral Assistance Division, disclosed this during the fifth edition of the Sectoral Reflection Series on elections and democracy, organised by the Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa PAACA in collaboration with Legis360.

Ka said the initiative was part of ECOWAS’ efforts to increase youth participation in electoral processes and give young people a greater role in election observation across the region.

He said ECOWAS had first piloted the youth election observer initiative in Côte d’Ivoire before replicating it in Benin, with plans to extend it to other West African countries, including Nigeria.

“Definitely, we are not going to leave Nigeria out in January,” Ka said, referring to the 2027 electoral process.

He said the initiative was necessary because young people constitute a significant proportion of the population across West Africa, yet their participation in politics and elections remained relatively low.

Ka identified inadequate access to finance as the biggest obstacle preventing young people from participating effectively in politics.

He also identified inadequate education and training, social and cultural barriers, gender bias and weaknesses in the internal democracy of political parties as other factors limiting youth participation.

He said political parties had an important role to play in creating opportunities for young people to participate within their structures, noting that exclusion at the party level could affect their participation in national politics.

“Unless young people can access finance, I don’t think they can do much about political participation,” he said.

The ECOWAS official, however, said financial support needed to be complemented by education and training to equip young people with the knowledge and skills required to participate effectively in democratic processes.

He said technological advancement was also helping to reduce some cultural barriers by exposing young people to political developments and experiences in other parts of the world.

Ka urged young people to become more organised and committed to political participation, stressing that ECOWAS could provide support but could not take responsibility for their involvement on their behalf.

Also speaking, Ezenwa Nwagwu, Executive Director of PAACA, said integrating young people into ECOWAS election observation activities would help strengthen democratic participation and ensure that their perspectives were adequately represented in electoral processes.

Nwagwu urged young election observers to familiarise themselves with ECOWAS protocols on youth participation and other regional instruments guiding democratic processes.

He said greater youth representation in election observation could contribute to strengthening confidence in electoral processes and promoting wider participation in democratic governance.